Key changes and reforms adopted by Australian Post
Australian post is a government owned corporation In Australia. It provides postal services to the people of Australia. In recent times, changes become an important tool to remain competitive in the market and work as per customer expectations. Customers are moving toward the digitalisation approach due to the change in technologies. The major changes are done by the business in its parcel delivery services. The first section of the report has discussed the changes adopted by the Australian post. The reforms that are to be implemented in the organization required to be accepted by the employees in order to bring those changes successfully. Therefore, people development strategies adopted by the firm such as change support programme and training for employees. Further, the discussion is carried on the people development strategies that are adopted by the Australian Post in order to overcome the resistance of people. The discussion continues by discussing alignment of future strategies to manage change and innovation in the business.
- Changes in process- In the year 2016 and 17, becoming customer centric was the important theme. In this, Australian post focused on refining the parcel delivery experience. People who are working across the “Australian post group” brought this approach. The rapid decline has led the company to bring reforms in letter services (Australian Postal Corporation(a), 2018). However, operational changes were implemented in the delivery network. It is founded that the letter volume was declined by 11.8% in 2016/17 as compare to the previous years. In order to address this issue, the speed of delivery of post has been increased. These changes helped the company to reduce the financial losses and improving the sustainability of letter service.
- Changes in policy- Due to its better progress in mitigating the release of greenhouse gases, it is ensured by the company to understand the climate change (Knott & Battersby, 2015). By keeping this in mind, it made changes in the set of policies as per change in laws, technology, and market. By facilitating the changes in policies related to employment, postal services, letter delivery, it was successful in bringing reforms.
- Changes in payment policy- Due to changing demand of the customers, it has provided the easy convenience to the customers by assisting them with banking, payment of bills and payment processing. It has launched product as well as services that do scanning of Bill and digital receipts (Crew & Brennan, 2016). In order to compete in the local and global market, it has applied the innovative ideas in the business.
- Changes in shift of employees- In order to maintain the health of employees, It has moved many employees from the night shift to day shift. It helps the many employees through this transition including sleep management, staying healthy, understanding the superannuation, and planning of future (Patroni, von & Recker, 2016).
- Changes in clearance timing- Australian post helps to ensure the posties to have sustainable jobs with them in the future. It has leveraged the existing system and increased the number of parcel it was delivering before. It has begun trialling of electric vehicle for delivering it post. In these electric vehicles, it will have more than three times carrying capacity. It has also started using SPB technology that alerts the posties when they are about to reach the delivery point (Australia Post, 2014).
- Changes in digital landscape- due to changes in perception of customers, it has changes the digital landscape of its delivery of post. It has now started delivering more than 34% parcels. This reform has made many changes in its postal services. In order to provide sustainable opportunities of job, It started using the full power of its network. It decided to bring the letter, mail network, and parcel together in order to form a new ecommerce delivery team.
- Digital transformation- When Australian post was facing decline in its profit, it urged the Australian post to made technological changes in the business activities. In 2008, the delivery of letter per household was decreased by one third that drives the company to move toward digitalisation in its business (Kouvaras, 2016). Due to the decline in demand of its services, it is founded that people were shifted towards the digital media. This insists the Australian post to brought changes according to that.
- Changes in customer needs- in recent years, Australian post has seen various changes in needs of the customers. Therefore, it adopted customer-centricity approach to offer its customers a great experience. Due to changes in outside environment, need of people also changes that drive the changes in services of Australian post.
- Financial losses in the company- Due to the shift of people towards digital technologies, companies profit was started decline. The decline in letter volumes drives the company to make changes in letter services (Australian Postal Corporation (b), 2018). Due to the rapid rate of decline drives the company to make reforms in its letter services. In order to address the issue, Australia post stated that it is implementing the changes in delivery network.
- Involvement of people in change- It is the best way to overcome the resistance of people from change. When Australian post thought about bringing a customer-centric programme. It has involved the people by organising a meeting. In this meeting, aspects of changes are discussed with the employee’s before bringing those changes. It helped the Australian Post to overcome from the people regarding resisting those changes (Quickmail, 2017).
- Training and redeployment of people- In order to overcome the resistance of employees from change, Australian post has conducted a training in which they are equipped with the skills that are needed to bring the change in the organization. Due to this training, Australian post was successful in bringing the change in its tradition services. It is stated in the report of Australian post, due to the employees of the organization, it is possible to shift from the traditional services to the ecommerce deliveries (Australia Post, 2015).
- Change support program for employees – various programs are introduced by the Australian post in which employees learned the importance and benefits that changes brought in the organization. It started change support programme for all the impacted employees. In this program, nearly 95% of impacted employees joined the program. The employees in this programme were freely to ask any sort of queries. Besides this, it stated that leaders are responsible for positive change. Leaders were asked to support the employees through this programme. In 2017, managing director, CEO participated in the change program.
- Surveys for employee’s as well Australian citizens- before initiating change in the business activities, it has conducted a survey in which employees and citizen’s feedback was taken to know the impact of changes on those (Jaag, Moyano & Trinkner, 2016). It helped the company to know the people perception regarding those changes. This strategy has helped the company to minimise the rate of resistance.
- Assistance to employees through creation of tool- In the annual report of the Australian post, it is mentioned that it was doing research from the past few years to provide the essential tool to employees (Wang, Jie & Abareshi, 2015). From these tools, it has created one tool named “snap it app.” In this app, employees were free to log an issue of customers for a friend or family member.
Australian post has brought many changes in the organization in order to deliver best services. It is seen that there are many reforms made in the letter business. It will allow the Australian post to invest its resources in the domestic as well as international ecommerce capabilities by creating a new future for post offices (Australia Post Annual Report, 2010). Under its planned reform, it will provide the priority service to customers according to its existing timetable. In addition, regular services for non-urgent mail will be delivered two days slower than the priority (Department of Communication, 2018). In the annual post of Australia post, it is stated that these reforms will help the business to provide its customers satisfaction as well as security. These reforms will provide the various opportunities to its employees for their career. Mentoring and training services is provided to the employees that will help the employees to increase their knowledge and skills. In addition, it is igniting a culture of innovation in its business by focusing on delivering the customer experience. As a result, the customers will enjoy the better service that will suit to their modern need (Australia Post, 2017).
By ensuring these changes in the organization, customers will enjoy the local as well as international market. Reforms are a best step for the customers and business of Australian post. It will allow the business to continue provide the essential services to the Australian community that they value (The Conversation, 2014). It will also enable to invest in the growth of ecommerce. It is investing in the Ecommerce activities to become the leader in ecommerce. It has facilitated the commerce in Australia by delivering ecommerce to everyone and everywhere (Parkes, 2018).
From the analysis of the case study, it is learnt that change is an important element of any business to succeed. There are various changes occur in the outside environment as well customers’ expectations also changes by time. Australian post has made various changes in its business activities due to the increasing digitalisation of services. All these changes are brought in the Australian post with the help of its employees. In this way, all the changes are required to consult with the employees who will play a most important part in bringing change in the business. In addition, Australian post has conducted various change support programmes in order to manage the resistance of employees from the changes. It helped company to receive the employees support in changes. The most important lesson learnt from the case study is that “employees are the important assets of the organization therefore every decision is required to consult with employees before initiating it.” In addition to this, it has been interpreted that various changes can occur in organization, but it requires the support of employees to initiate those changes. Same as Australian post, it is required by every firm to insist the employees by communicating those changes in detail. It is seen that whenever organization brought any changes in organization, employees usually resist. Therefore, it is necessary to take such measures so that employees cannot resist those changes. Same as, Australian Post has initiated various employee development strategies so that employees come to know the importance of those changes.
Conclusion
In the limelight of above discussion, it can be concluded that Australia post has been growing fast by initiating successful changes in the business. Australian post recently has done various changes in the organization. From all the changes, it has done major changes in letter services, changes in process in order to offer a great experience to customers. Australian post was facing a greater financial loss due to the shift of employees to digitalisation. In order to address the problem, it has started investing in various new technologies so that issues can be encounter. In order to overcome the resistance of people from change, it has developed various strategies for people. Change support program has helped the employees in many ways. Besides this, training has helped the employees to learn the skills that are required to bring the changes. The future strategy of the organization is to become a leader in ecommerce. By ensuring this, Australian post has done changes in its business. The changes will help the customer to enjoy better service in the market.
References
Australia Post Annual Report. (2010). Getting future ready. Retrieved from: https://auspost.com.au/content/dam/auspost_corp/media/documents/AP-annual-report-0910.pdf
Australia post. (2015). Delivering ecommerce. Retrieved from: https://auspost.com.au/annualreport2015/delivering-ecommerce.html
Australia Post. (2017). Part of Tomorrow. Retrieved from: https://auspost.com.au/content/dam/auspost_corp/media/documents/Annual-Report-2017.pdf
Australian Post Corporation. (2018). Government supports Australia Post’s plan to reform its letters service. Retrieved from: https://auspost.com.au/general/government-supports-australia-posts-plan-to-reform-its-letters-service
Australian Post. (2014). Supporting our people through change. Retrieved from: https://auspost.com.au/annualreport2014/supporting-our-people-through-change.html
Australian Postal Corporation(a). (2018). Changes to your letter services. Retrieved from: https://auspost.com.au/general/changes-to-your-letters-service
Australian Postal Corporation(b). (2018). New scam targeting Australia post customers. Retrieved from: https://auspost.com.au/about-us/news-media/important-updates
Crew, M. A., & Brennan, T. J. (Eds.). (2016). The future of the postal sector in a digital world. Heidelberg: Springer.
Department of Communication. (2018). Australia Post. Retrieved from: https://www.communications.gov.au/what-we-do/post/australia-post
Jaag, C., Moyano, J. P., & Trinkner, U. (2016). Postal strategies in a digital age. In The Future of the Postal Sector in a Digital World (pp. 103-120). Springer, Cham.
Knott, M., & Battersby, L. ( 2015). Abbott government approves sweeping Australia Post changes, price rises. Retrieved from: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/abbott-government-approves-sweeping-australia-post-changes-price-rises-20150303-13tju7.html
Kouvaras, L. I. (2016). Loading the silence: Australian sound art in the post-digital age. United Kingdom: Routledge.
Parkes, B. (2018). Australia Post: how it went about workforce planning for the future. Retrieved from: https://insightsresources.seek.com.au/australia-post-how-they-went-about-workforce-planning-for-the-future
Patroni, J., von Briel, F., & Recker, J. (2016). How enterprise social media can facilitate innovation. IT Professional, 18(6), 34-41.
Quickmail. (2017). The FACTS about Australia Post’s approved reforms. Retrieved from: https://quickmail.com.au/the-facts-about-australia-posts-approved-reforms/
The Conversation. (2014). The future of Australia Post will be off the beaten track. Retrieved from: https://theconversation.com/the-future-of-australia-post-will-be-off-the-beaten-track-27448
Wang, M., Jie, F., & Abareshi, A. (2015). Business Logistics Performance Measurement in Third-Party Logistics: An Empirical Analysis of Australian Courier Firms. International Journal of Business and Information, 10(3).
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